When it comes to finding an affordable apartment, you may have more in common with your local congressional representative than you think.

“The rent really continues to be too damn high,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., a freshman lawmaker who represents Los Angeles. “I'm a renter, and many of the freshman class are renting and we're struggling to find places that we could afford right here in Washington, D.C., so that we have a place to stay and lay our head and then get up and go to work. 

“If we're struggling, God help constituents throughout our districts and this country who are also struggling and don't have the bully pulpit that we have,” Kamlager-Dove continued.

Fellow California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat, launched the Congressional Renters Caucus Wednesday, the first of its kind in Congress to focus on issues around affordable housing in America. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Gomez’s district, the California 34th, had 206,825 “renter-occupied” homes as of 2021, while just 58,692 homes in his district were “owner-occupied.” Gomez said Wednesday his district has the “highest percentage of renters in California, and it's the No. 1 district with the highest rent-burdened renters in California itself.”

“This is also not just a blue state or blue city issue. It's also a red state, red city issue as well,” said Gomez. “If it was an easy problem to solve, it would have been solved a long time ago.”

Gomez said he has become more acutely aware of the situation facing renters through his work with the Congressional Dads Caucus, which he launched earlier this year.

“When you include rent, which is about 30% of a person's income, and then child care, which is now 26%, you're focusing off of that 60% of the family's income towards two things. Two things,” Gomez said. “So this is something that we got to tackle and we got to tackle it now.”

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in the first quarter of 2023, the median asking rent for vacant units was $1,462. The Census Bureau’s 2021 American Housing Survey identified that more than one-third of American households were renters.

“This caucus is launching in the midst of an ongoing affordable housing crisis,” said Kim Johnson, policy manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, who joined Gomez and other members of Congress for the announcement. “Nationally, there's a shortage of over 7 million rental units affordable and available, and there's not a single state or congressional district in the country with enough deeply affordable homes to meet demand.

“This is a tremendous issue, and there's a tremendous power imbalance in our housing system that [is] tilted heavily in favor of landlords, often at the expense of renters. In order to meaningfully address the crisis facing renters, we must focus on solutions that center the needs of people with lowest incomes,” Johnson added.

Reps. Ayanna Pressely, D-Mass., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., are vice chairs of the caucus. The pair serve on the House Financial Services Committee together, which Gomez said will be critical in helping address these issues. Reps. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., Rob Menendez, D-N.J., Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., Dwight Evans, D-Pa., Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, Grace Meng, D-N.Y., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., are all founding members of the group.

So far, no Republicans have joined Gomez’s caucus, but when Spectrum News asked about it, Gomez seemed unconcerned.

“I'm kind of impatient,” admitted Gomez. “I don't want to wait for Republicans to make up their mind if they're gonna join. I say build it, make it successful, and then if it's successful and something that their constituents want, they will join.”

Asked about how he plans to get legislation passed through a Republican-controlled House and over to the Democratic Senate, Gomez said, “We’re going to be working on it.”

“Republicans are always going to be difficult. Some of them tried to crash the American economy by using the debt ceiling as leverage to cut off domestic spending, minus, of course, defense,” said Gomez, who voted against the debt ceiling bill last week. “We see government as a tool to help, not to hurt people. So we have a different view.

“There are some Republicans that I hear support the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, but is it a priority for them to put it on top of their agenda to ensure that it has a hearing to ensure that it can get through the House and the Senate?” Gomez asked. “I don't see that quite yet, but we're going to be working on it.”